Release Day!
Bedside Manners
Bedside Manners by Phoebe Fox
Series: Breakup Doctor #2
Print and e-book, 266 pages
Expected publication: March 24th 2015 by Henery Press
Brook Ogden has never encountered a broken heart she couldn’t patch together. Her counseling practice as the Breakup Doctor—on call to help you shape up after a breakup—is so busy she’s expanded to offer group sessions. (Turns out there are far more than fifty ways to leave your lover.) Her radio show and advice column have made her a local celebrity, and even her personal life, after some gruesome breakups of her own, is in recovery: Ben Garrett started out as a revenge date against an ex, but has turned into so much more.
But when sizzling-hot Chip Santana, an old client she once shared a rather unprofessional midnight roll in the sand with, comes back into her life asking for her help, Brook can’t say no. Yet while she’s busy stitching up his relationship troubles, Chip reveals much more than a therapeutic interest in her.
In the standoff between her heart and her hormones, Brook’s cool, collected Wise Therapist persona begins to crack like thrown wedding china. She’s yelling at recalcitrant cheating husbands. Offering crazy advice to radio callers. She’s even hugging her clients.
When the situation goes critical, Brook’s forced into a decision she isn’t ready to make—and the Breakup Doctor has to decide what kind of casualties she’s willing to accept.
My thoughts about Bedside Manners ~~
I loved book #1, The Breakup Doctor and was so excited to see that there was going to be a book #2. Bedside Manners is a great follow-up that takes us back to Brook's world, where we get to learn even more about her life.
Brook is a very likable character and she has a great sense of humor, a very gentle kind of humor, which we get to see throughout the story. She decides to start a support group for people with relationship problems. Those sessions were some of the best parts of the book - what great characters and situations! Brook dispenses such great advice and words of wisdom throughout the book.
'"I've fought some of the same battles a lot of you are facing," I went on. "And I still am, and I'll probably fight more in the future. But this last time through the wringer I learned that you can't keep it all bottled up - you have to let it out. And you can't do it alone - you have to be brave enough to share it with people who care about you. You have to let yourself be vulnerable enough to accept help. I hope that's part of what we're able to offer one another as we work through our situations in here."'
She is great at helping people and giving them good advice but she is human, and stuggles with relationships in her own life. She is torn between Chip and Ben and watching the struggle between her heart and hormones makes this story loads of fun.
'I could help people. But there were only so many hours in a day - and I still had to leave time for a life of my own, or I'd have nothing to offer anyone else.'
I loved that Brook grew as a person in this story as she learned so much about herself, as well as helping other people figure themselves out. I really hope we will get to see more of Brook in the future, she has so much to teach us all.
'... sometimes you have to get a little crazy to move past a broken heart...'
The Breakup Doctor
Book #1
You can read my thoughts about this wonderful book
here.
About the author
I love that Phoebe shares her 'official' bio with us but then also shares the 'real stuff' about herself. It made me smile.
The official bio: Phoebe Fox has been a contributor and regular columnist for a number of national, regional, and local publications; a movie, theater, and book reviewer; a screenwriter; an actress; and a game show host; and has even been known to help with homework revisions for nieces and nephews. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two excellent dogs.
The bio I’d tell you over coffee and doughnuts: My earliest memories are words: sounding them out with the characters on The Electric Company and Sesame Street; trying to decipher signs as my mom drove me and my brother and sister around town; using (and misusing) new words I’d seen in magazines or advertisements or on TV. The first failure I remember is blowing the third-grade spelling bee when I got to the finals (“analyze”—I spelled it with an i instead of a y). Words and language have fascinated me as long as I can remember—and even more so, the worlds that can be created with them. Nearly every childhood picture of me shows me with my nose in a book. Stories were my sanctuary, my fantasy life, my dreams, and my escape from childhood sorrows. As I got older, I realized that what I loved most was reading about people, and how they think, what they do, and why. Shoot-’em-ups didn't grab me, and neither did mysteries or thrillers or horror. I wanted to examine people’s actions, and the psychology behind why we do what we do, and when I started writing (another earliest memory—as soon as I knew how, I had a pen in my hand), those were the kinds of tales I wanted to create.
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